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XtraTime Web Desk: As Indian cricketer Rohit Sharma celebrates his 33rd birthday today, another famous Mumbaikar created history on this day back in 1992 in English county cricket. A 19 year old Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar became the first overseas cricketer to represent Yorkshire. Yorkshire had a rigid tradition in place of not allowing any overseas cricketer to play for the county. The competition grew tougher for the West Yorkshire club as other county sides started strengthening their squad by recruiting foreign players. This prompted the cricket committee of the Yorkshire to think about signing a quality overseas cricketer. But the idea faced stiff resistance with legendary Freddie Truman hailing that decision as "a bloody disgrace". The county did sign Australian pacer Craig McDermott to be their first overseas recruit but the Aussie pulled out due to a groin injury a month before his scheduled debut on Good Friday. The news about McDermott not turning up for the county was telecasted on Yorkshire television and it created quite a stir. It was during this time a Drewbury businessman Solly Adam, who was involved with the county (member of Yorkshire CCC) approached Brian Close and told him about Sachin Tendulkar. According to Solly, "It so happened that I watched the 6 pm news sometime in 1991 where I saw it was announced that Yorkshire was changing the century old rule where no player other than ones born in Yorkshire could play for the county.” Solly was quite popular with the Indian cricketers at that time. Solly bhai (popularly known by this name) was like a friend and philosopher to any Indian cricketer visiting North England to play league or county cricket. His (Solly) association with Sachin dates back to late 80s when he visited England with Kailash Ghattani’s team. Solly rang up Tendulkar who was in Australia with the touring Indian team. Sachin was in a dilemma whether to play county cricket or not. Solly approached Sunil Gavaskar and explained him that Yorkshire wants Sachin and he has not made up his mind. Gavaskar played a key role in convincing Sachin to play for the county. Another person who played an important part in getting Sachin to play at Headingley was Chris Hassell, who was the Chief Ececutive of the county. “We had actually signed Craig McDermott from Australia, and Yorkshire TV had sponsored him. The signing was quite a spectacular one because YTV had a live link up with him whilst he was still in Australia. We had all the press boys in their studios,” said Hassell in an interview to Yorkshire CCC website. Hassell managed to convince the cricket committee about signing Tendulkar as the first overseas cricketer as the county wanted to sign a big name. “Our greatest need was in the fast bowling department, so it was quite a change. But the reason for signing Sachin was because this was our first overseas player, and we wanted a high profile player. We couldn’t just go for a Joe Soap who nobody had heard of. The pressure was on us to go for a really big name,” said Hassell. Sachin flew in to Yorkshire where he was presented to the members during a county fixture at Headingley. The sponsors Tetley’s did a photo shoot with Sachin with a flat cap and a pint in his hand. It made for an iconic image ahead of a season in which a young Sachin, aged just 19 at the time, scored 1070 runs in 16 County Championship matches at an average of 46.52, with seven fifties and a 96-ball century versus Durham.